Research on the impact of industry–finance cooperation on green total factor productivity from the perspective of indirect financing

The Chinese government aims to use environmental policy measures to improve society's overall green total factor productivity (GTFP) and create a new development pattern in which the economy and the environment are equally important. Based on the perspective of indirect financing, this study divides 272 prefecture-level industry–finance cooperation cities in China from 2015 to 2021 into 109 resource-based cities and 163 nonresource-based cities; we use the PSM-difference-in-differences (DID) model to explore their impact on GTFP. The research results are as follows. First, industry–finance cooperation significantly promotes GTFP. Second, although the nonresource-based cities have insignificant industry–finance cooperation, resource-based cities have significantly positive industry–finance cooperation. Third, from the perspective of indirect financing, industry–finance cooperation can effectively improve GTFP. Fourth, the reliability of the conclusions is verified by successively using the parallel trend test, the placebo test, the dynamic time window test, the counterfactual test, and the elimination of other policy interferences. Based on the above findings, the Chinese government must always adhere to the important "comprehensive regulation and measures according to local conditions" policy and fully use "information technology and green credit."